St. Peter's Memorial in Capernaum

Today we traveled to the St. Peter's Memorial in Capernaum which is where St. Peter's house is located. In fact, you can still see the stone walls of the house and the remains of previous churches which were built around it. The church at St. Peter's Memorial is built directly over the house of St. Peter and commemorates the site. Adjacent to this is the synagogue where Jesus taught the people of Galilee.

During Mass in the church at St. Peter's Memorial I was deeply moved. The Gospel for the Mass was the Bread of Life discourse from John 6. The last sentence of the gospel passage struck me. It reads, "These things He said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum." As I listened to these words I realized my angle of sight from where I was sitting was such that I was looking right at the synagogue where Jesus gave this gospel discourse. During this moment I thought to myself, "Jesus taught this here! It really happened here!" Throughout the rest of the Mass I was thinking of this, especially during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. It was an amazing grace to receive the Eucharist, the True Bread that comes down from heaven, in the same place where Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Bread of Life.